Calendar Girls

This film is a series of vignettes that tell the story of one woman's efforts to find a suitable way to provide a memorial for her best friend's deceased husband. A chance comment by the dying man, that "in her last bloom, a woman is at her most glorious”, combined with the lead character's mixed emotions about her own aging and her son's coming of age, leads to a controversial proposal to spice up the annual calendar by posing in the nude. The movie follows the process and personal repercussions as one by one, twelve women choose to challenge local conventions and join the project. Although this movie was marketed as a comedy, the individual challenges faced by each woman are excellent discussion starters and are especially relevant as this movie is based on an actual event. Topics available for exploration include how women communicate with each other and their partners, societal expectations, coping with lost relationships through death or divorce, risk taking, and the connections between body image and aging. The focus of this film is from a woman's point of view but can be used effectively with individuals or in couples counseling.